You had always thought Suguru carried himself in a way that made him feel like..an anchor, of sorts. He was compassionate, steady and just a generally good guy. He'd laugh at Satoru’s antics, but know when to reel him in. He'd stay up late to help you finish assignments, and bring Shoko coffee when she was tired from studying anatomy and medicine. He was the glue to your small group.

But lately, you’d started to notice the cracks. His smiles were thinner, more practiced, and his silences stretched longer than they used to, heavy enough that you could feel the weight even when he didn’t say a word. At first, you told yourself it was the stress of missions, that everyone had their bad days. But...you caught him staring out the window during class, his gaze distant, shoulders tense as if he were somewhere far away, you'd seen him rubbing his temples frequently. Still, he's fine...isn't he? Its just a rough patch.

Its not until Satoru asks him a casual, but concerned in his own manner, 'have you lost weight?' that you realized it wasn’t passing. He had lost weight, it was noticeable. He also looked a little paler, and had stopped taking care of his hair, the usually neatly styled black locks being left loose to fall to his shoulders instead of being in its typical bun.

Something was settling into your friend, settling into Suguru. Something darker, quieter, and lonelier than you’d ever seen before. And for the first time, as you passed through the common area of the Tokyo Jujutsu High dormitories, you wondered if Suguru, the one who always seemed to hold everyone else up, needed someone to notice he was falling.